The present invention relates to bioelectronic devices comprising lipid vesicles which are in contact with a chip, particularly with at least one gate of a field effect transistor. The vesicles/bilayers may comprise effector molecules in their membrane and thus are suitable as bioelectronic sensors. The chip may also have a capacitive stimulating spot, with which the electrical or functional state of the membrane or its incorporated molecules may be affected.
So far, membrane-semiconductor contacts have been made by either (a) depositing monomolecular films or spreading lipid vesicles (Fromherz et al., Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 84 (1980), 1045; Tamm et al., Biophys. J. 47 (1985), 105; Kalb et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1103 (1992), 307; Sackmann, Science 271 (1996), 43; Gritsch et al., Langmuir 14 (1998), 3118) or (b) spanning a bilayer over a shallow groove (Fromherz and Klingler, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1062 (1991), 103; Rentschler and Fromherz, Langmuir 14 (1998), 577). The first approach is prone to defect formation with a low resistance of the membrane; the second method implies a large distance between membrane and support with a low resistance of the cleft. In order to avoid these defects a pre-formed lipid vesicle was attached to a silicon chip with integrated transistors. As a result we obtained microscopic membrane-junctions with 100 Gxcexa9 resistances of membrane and cleft.
Thus a subject matter of the present invention is a bioelectronic device comprising
(a) at least one lipid vesicle or a portion thereof (ruptured vesicle) comprising a membrane and
(b) at least one electrode having at least one potential sensitive surface area or capacitive stimulating spot, wherein the membrane is in close contact with said area or stimulating spot.